The invention relates to the manufacture of electrical contacts. More specifically, the invention concerns providing electrical contacts with tip portions substantially free of burrs during this manufacture.
Previously known methods and apparatus for manufacturing electrical contacts have involved either a forming or a machining operation. The most widely accepted forming operation involved cutting off the strip material at a specified location and thereafter providing the desired end with a proper angle, giving the resulting tip a configuration substantially similar to a truncated pyramid. The best known of the machining operations concerned utilization of a tool similar in operation to a pencil sharpener which positively engaged a severed end of the material to produce a tip having a truncated cone shape.
Both of these known prior art methods contain several disadvantages. Firstly, each requires a substantial amount of operator involvement, primarily for purposes of aligning the various machine components and for maintaining relatively continuous supervision of the process. Such involvement adds to the possibility of human error as well as increasing the opportunity for operator injury. Secondly, these processes have been unable to compensate for any mismatches resulting from variations in both tooling and material tolerances. The result has been the formation of burrs or similar deformities at the critical point of transition from the tapered point to the original cross-sectional configuration of the strip material. Burrs also have occurred at the severed location.
It is believed therefore that an apparatus and method capable of providing an electrical contact produced from a strip of metallic material with a tip portion substantially free of burrs would constitute an advancement in the art.